“Dave Thomas Circle” opens June 4th

Starting Friday, June 4th, drivers on eastbound Florida Avenue will detour onto First Street around the intersection of New York Avenue, creating a partial traffic circle pattern.

This “circle” will ultimately create a loop involving Florida Avenue, 1st Street, and O Street, with one-way traffic on all three and a two-way New York Avenue cutting through. Since this circle has the Wendy’s in the center, DDOT has affectionately but unofficially referred to this “Dave Thomas Circle.”

DDOT has completed one phase and is now beginning the next, involving the O Street section. Therefore, they are closing the little loop drivers use from eastbound Florida to eastbound New York. Instead, traffic on eastbound Florida will turn right on 1st Street, then left on New York Avenue to either continue on New York or go back to Florida or O Street to get back to Florida.

Image from DDOT.

First Street and Florida Avenue will both become one-way for the blocks immediately adjacent to the Wendy’s. New York Avenue will remain two-way.

If plans haven’t changed, the next phase will construct the O Street section, allowing cars to turn from 1st onto O and then onto eastbound Florida without using New York Avenue.

David Alpert is Founder and President of Greater Greater Washington and Executive Director of DC Sustainable Transportation (DCST). He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle. Unless otherwise noted, opinions in his GGWash posts are his and not the official views of GGWash or DCST.